Skip to main content

story identification - Movie ID: 50s/60s time travel film with *terrible* plot holes


Back in the eighties I saw an apparently sixties-era film on afternoon UHF TV. In it a crew of men and women were on board a time-travelling vessel. I think it was not a ship, more of a stationary pod a la H.G. Wells' time machine. Through the film the crew finds themselves in troubling time-related predicaments.


I remember two of these situations, only because even at my young age it was clear to me how illogical these situations were and how great the plot holes were.


One of these situations occurred when the crew time-travels to their own recent past--a previous scene of the film, I think. But the "past" version of the crew is frozen still, and the "present" crew comes to realize it is because time is flowing for them at a greatly accelerated pace, so that the world around them is almost, but not completely, still.


Later the crew travels again to the past. While in transit to the past, the crew discovers their vessel is on a collision course, through time, with another vessel. They attempt to hail it, and fail. The only way they can survive is to fire on it, so they do, and the other vessel is destroyed, though their own takes damage.



The crew arrives in the past and they do what they set out to do (I forget what). Then they board again, to return to their own time. And on their way, they again discover their vessel is on a collision course with another vessel. And the other is hailing them! And they hear their own voices! And their transmitter is damaged so they cannot reply! The conclusion of that scene may have been left to the viewer. And all that was while they are travelling through time, in a vessel that, as far as I can remember, never spatially moves during the film.


The only reason I remember this obscure, poorly produced film at all is because the plot holes are so gaping and obvious. But as to its name, I completely fail to recall.



Answer



It looks like the movie you're thinking of is "Journey to the Center of Time," from 1967, directed by David L. Hewitt, starring Scott Brady, Anthony Eisley, Abraham Sofaer and Gigi Perreau.



Overcome by greed, Stanton grabs handfuls of the precious gems, returns to the time machine, replaces the ruby and takes off without the scientists. However, on his return trip, he encounters another traveler in time. He hears a radio broadcast — it is from Manning! He is racing towards the earlier version of the time machine. Then he is destroyed by a blast initiated by his earlier self.







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...